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Lets put it this way, I'm 95% sure the NASL is dead. Once they decide that USL will be the new D2, I'd be curious to see if USL splits into D2 and D3 divisions as a 30+ team league is a little tough logistically, and some teams may keep the D3 structure afloat.

How is it tough logistically? If they divide it into regional divisions like say the AHL does it should be very manageable.

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Actually they're dead independent of the Cosmos troubles. The RFA was pulled for the site and all the proposals including the Cosmos were rejected. Which makes me wonder if that among their financial woes didn't play into the Cosmos closing up shop.

No, it's not dead independent of the Cosmos troubles and there is no coincidence that the "rejection" of the proposals came so close after the termination of player contracts. The stadium is what EDC wanted for the Belmont Park site which is semi-obvious from a reading of the actual RFP. Also, realize the other sports issue going on on Long Island and that the cancellation of the RFP clears the way for a new RFP for a different sports related use for which there are renderings and have been discussions on particulars which most likely heated up after the Cosmos' financial issues became known.

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No, it's not dead independent of the Cosmos troubles and there is no coincidence that the "rejection" of the proposals came so close after the termination of player contracts. The stadium is what EDC wanted for the Belmont Park site which is semi-obvious from a reading of the actual RFP.

If that was the case, then they wouldn't have bothered with the revised RFP last year.

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I was going to mention this one. I saw the 30 for 30 earlier this year and that reminded me of this. That must've been such a tough day for him to go through.

John Salley has told the story of Mahorn finding out that he was taken by Minnesota.

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So we're on the parade route and we stop. And former Pistons' general manager Jack McCloskey's on the phone. And we're all, like, "Yeah, yay, yeah!"

He puts phone away and Jack's acting normally. We're on a bus; we did the parade all the way downtown and we're headed back to the Palace so all the rich folks can now see us and not wait outside. After we did the inner-city, we went to the outer-city. Went to the suburbs. And we had this stage.

So Rick Mahorn's out there and he's like, "I just want to say to the Baddest of all The Bad Boys: Gimme some eyeball."

He went around, looking all mean and whatever.

We go in the locker room and they hold everybody out, they go, "Everybody, everybody in the locker room, you have to sign these balls."

And Bill Laimbeer is like, "I'm not signing." And they're like, "No, you have to sign them now."

They hold us in the locker room and we're going around and signing all these balls and I'm thinking "What's so important about having all these balls signed?"

We sign all the balls, all the posters, everything that was hanging around. Just then they call Rick Mahorn into the locker room office to let him know he is now a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

That's when he found out, but Jack had found out on the bus. Remember, the Lakers put up Kareem for the draft. Kareem said to both Charlotte and Minnesota, "If you pick me, I'm going to retire." So no one picked him. We could've protected Rick had we known about it earlier.

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The timing would indicate that the State was considering their proposal until it was clear that they wouldn't be around long enough to actually use the land.

I think that was the only responsible position. From the second game, the Cosmos' survival has always been in doubt. The state shouldn't have given them the land under those circumstances.

I agree completely.

8 hours ago, Gothamite said:

If that was the case, then they wouldn't have bothered with the revised RFP last year.

From my understanding the November, 2015 RFP revision was to remove the parcel north of Hempstead Turnpike consolidating all of the development on the south parcel. This language is directly quoted from the RFP

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Passive or active recreational use is required on the southern portion of Site B. Recreational uses may include a park, sports fields, indoor recreation facility, arena or stadium. Any ongoing maintenance or management associated with the recreational facility shall be the responsibility of the Selected Developer.

EDC wants some type of sports use for the site (Elmont not so much) which is why I wouldn't be shocked at all to see a new RFP come out in the next year or so with one of the proposals being a new arena for the Islanders. The benefit of course being that at Belmont, being state land any developer would only have to deal with one layer of bureaucracy instead of the several layers that would otherwise need to be gone through (Nassau County, Town of Hempstead, etc.)

8 hours ago, Gothamite said:

More creditors to get in line.

What a nightmare this has been.

Looks like the Cosmos' ownership is on the verge of a bankruptcy filing or at least their creditors think they are.

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Yeah the creditor, unpaid employee side of this has been deplorable. But it also underlines why on the balance it's great that the Cosmos are finally getting what had been coming to them since almost the beginning of this most recent incarnation.

My only hope is that this time they stay dead and some of the false mystique surrounding the "brand" dies with them. But I'm not holding my breath.

Saturday night’s match, in which only one U.S. home market was represented, saw the Seattle Sounders win their first MLS Cup, defeating Toronto FC 0(5)-0(4) in penalty kicks. The game posted a viewership increase of +111% over last year’s game (668,000), which was televised by ESPN on a Sunday afternoon.

As the intensity and drama grew into overtime and penalty kicks, so did the audience, peaking with 2.159 million viewers between 10:45 PM – 11:00 PM ET.

Overnight data from Numeris confirms that an average audience of more than 1.5 million viewers tuned in to TFC’s penalty kick loss to the Seattle Sounders on TSN (1.43 million*) and RDS (92,000*) to become Canada’s most-watched MLS game in history. The game was the most-watched television program – including sports broadcasts – in Canada on Saturday night.

The MLS CUP 2016 marked a 10% increase in average audience over the previous record, set on Nov. 30 in the MLS Eastern Conference Championship matchup between Toronto FC and Montreal Impact, with the TSN audience for Saturday night’s match almost doubling that of the conference final.

Audience levels peaked at 11 p.m. ET with 2.7 million viewers as Sounders defender Román Torres slotted home his penalty kick to seal the victory for Seattle. Overall, 4.2 million individual Canadians watched some part of Saturday night’s championship game on TSN and RDS.